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Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Sponsorship of FIFA: a new front in Gulf political rivalry

Lurking in the background of world soccer body FIFA’s talks
with Qatar Airways to replace its Dubai rival Emirates as a sponsor is the
escalating hostility between Qatar and the United Arab Emirates as a result of
their divergent attitudes towards political Islam.

Officially, Emirates’ decision to end its $200 million
relationship with FIFA is a result of its announcement three years ago that the
airline is restructuring its sponsorships, which also include soccer clubs Arsenal,
Real Madrid, Paris Saint Germaine (PSG) and Hamburger SV.

The announcement came a year after Emirates emerged as the
most vocal of the soccer body’s sponsors in expressing concern about FIFA’s mushrooming
corruption scandals involving disgraced FIFA executive committee member and
then Asian Football Confederation (AFC) president Mohammed Bin Hammam, a Qatari
national, and question marks about the integrity of the successful Russian and
Qatari bids to host the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

Emirates said at the time that it was “disappointed.”
Emirates was however uncharacteristically silent when in the last year various
sponsors expressed concern about the negative publicity FIFA was generating as
a result of mass protests in Brazil in the run-up to this year’s World Cup and
the soccer body’s unresolved transparency and accountability issues. In a
statement, the airline said it was parting ways with FIFA because the soccer
body’s proposed contract extending the sponsorship arrangement had not met its
expectations.

FIFA’s tarnished image is without doubt a major reason why
Emirates alongside Sony is seeking to disassociate itself from the soccer body.
Yet, it is hard to disassociate state-owned Emirates’ decision from the UAE’s
deteriorating relations with Qatar that has led to the incarceration in the UAE
of Qatari nationals on charges of spying, an environment in which Emiratis are
more reluctant to visit Qatar, and UAE’s investment of millions of dollars in
efforts to undermine its Gulf rival’s image and credibility.

In that environment, Emirates is unlikely to want to have
appeared as a sponsor when Qatar hosts the World Cup in eight years’ time. A
litmus test for what Emirates’ motives are will be whether Emirates also alters
its relationship with PSG, which is owned by Qatar. Emirati officials insist that
their country’s economic and commercial decisions are not effected by political
disputes with partners.

In a statement on its website, Emirates reiterated that “soccer
is a truly global sport and consequently has always been an important strand in
Emirates’ sponsorship portfolio ... Emirates’ sponsorship of FIFA is central to
its soccer strategy, facilitating connection with football fans across the
world.”

The rift between the UAE and Qatar runs deep. The UAE
alongside Saudi Arabia and Bahrain withdrew its ambassador from Doha in March
in a so far failed effort to force Qatar to halt its support for the Muslim
Brotherhood. That failure appears to have prompted the UAE to step up pressure
on Qatar as part of its more activist foreign policy aimed at countering
political Islam

In July, the UAE backed the establishment of the Muslim
Council of Elders (MCE) in a bid to counter Sheikh Qaradawi’s International
Union of Muslim Scholars as well as Qatar’s support for political change in the
Middle East and North Africa as long as it does not include the Gulf. The MCE
promotes a Sunni Muslim tradition of obedience to the ruler rather than
activist elements of the Salafis who propagate a return to 7th century life as
it was at the time of the Prophet Mohammed and his immediate successors.

The UAE, despite publicly backing Qatar against calls that
it be deprived of its right to host the 2022 World Cup because of alleged
wrongdoing in its successful bid and the sub-standard working and living
conditions of foreign workers, has covertly worked against the Gulf state.
Qatar in September briefly detained two British human rights activists who were
investigating human and labour rights in the Gulf state. The detentions exposed
a network of apparently Emirati-backed human rights groups in Norway, including
the Global Network for Rights and Development (GNRD), and France that seemingly
sought to polish the UAE’s image while tarnishing that of Qatar. The Brits of
Nepalese origin were acting on behalf, a Norway-based group with alleged links
to the UAE.

The GNRD’s International Human Rights Rank Indicator (IHRRI)
listed the UAE at number 14 as the Arab country most respectful of human rights
as opposed to Qatar that it ranked at number 94. The ranking contradicts
reports by human rights groups, including the United Nations Human Rights
Council (OHCHR), which earlier this year said it had credible evidence of
torture of political prisoners in the UAE and questioned the independence of
the country’s judiciary. Egypt’s State Information Service reported in December
that GNRD had supported the banning of the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist
organization and called for an anti-Brotherhood campaign in Europe.

The New York Times and The Intercept have since revealed
that the UAE, the world’s largest spender on lobbying in the United States in
2013, had engaged a lobbying firm to plant anti-Qatar stories in American
media. The firm, Camstoll Group, is operated by former high-ranking US Treasury
officials who had been responsible for relations with Gulf state and Israel as
well as countering funding of terrorism.

The New York Times reported that Camstoll’s public
disclosure forms “filed as a registered foreign agent, showed a pattern of
conversations with journalists who subsequently wrote articles critical of
Qatar’s role in terrorist fund-raising.” The Intercept asserted that Camstoll
was hired less than a week after it was established in late 2012 by Abu
Dhabi-owned Outlook Energy Investments, LLC with a retainer of $400,000 a
month.

UAE opposition to Qatar and the Muslim Brotherhood dates
back at least a decade. Abu Dhabi Crown Prince and Armed Forces Chief of Staff
Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed bin Zayed Al Nahayan warned US diplomats already in
2004 that "we are having a (culture) war with the Muslim Brotherhood in
this country,” according to US diplomatic cables disclosed by Wikileaks.

In 2009. Sheikh Mohamed went as far as telling US officials
that Qatar is "part of the Muslim Brotherhood." He suggested that a review of Al Jazeera employees
would show that 90 percent were affiliated with the Brotherhood. Other UAE officials privately described Qatar
as “public enemy number 3”, after Iran and the Brotherhood.

James M.
Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies
as Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, co-director of the Institute
of Fan Culture of the University of Würzburg and the author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer, and a forthcoming book with the
same title.

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About Me

James M DorseyWelcome to The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer by James M. Dorsey, a senior fellow at Nanyang Technological University’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. Soccer in the Middle East and North Africa is played as much on as off the pitch. Stadiums are a symbol of the battle for political freedom; economic opportunity; ethnic, religious and national identity; and gender rights. Alongside the mosque, the stadium was until the Arab revolt erupted in late 2010 the only alternative public space for venting pent-up anger and frustration. It was the training ground in countries like Egypt and Tunisia where militant fans prepared for a day in which their organization and street battle experience would serve them in the showdown with autocratic rulers. Soccer has its own unique thrill – a high-stakes game of cat and mouse between militants and security forces and a struggle for a trophy grander than the FIFA World Cup: the future of a region. This blog explores the role of soccer at a time of transition from autocratic rule to a more open society. It also features James’s daily political comment on the region’s developments. Contact: incoherentblog@gmail.comView my complete profile